Abstract:

This methodology has been developed in order to provide students with emotional management and creative process tools, as a way to express themselves by creating individual and collective art proposals. The entire project has two different structures, the first proposal which has been already applied named “Máscaras al Viento, el arte de crear amor propio” (M1), this project was published with the support of the Mexican University “Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey - ITESM” at 4º Congreso Internacional de Innovación Educativa 2017*. It was implemented with 728 children between 5 to 18 years from three different institutions, according with all the results obtained a second proposal was created.

The second proposal “Masks to the wind, the art of creating self-love 2” (M2) was applied to 555 participants between 5 to 60 years from four different institutions. M2 was focused on the aid and support towards community development, by creating community identity using techniques and tools that accompanied the participants through the entire process. M2 included a full training session for university, senior, and freshman year volunteers (G1) provided by non-profit organization (NPO) members with all the strategies for developing all the products required during the intervention in elementary schools, rehab centers and children's residential services (G2). All of the volunteers were evaluated by a performance rubric in order to understand their current knowledge about the topics and the methodology applied. If any G1 did not meet the requirements, they were encouraged to stay during the implementation not as evaluated contributors but as observers. Then, they will be evaluated again in order to assigned them to another G2.

All the G2 had to deliver social and economic evaluation provided by the NPO, as a way to understand the context, structure and the possible locations to implement the chosen methodology. Once they have been selected, the School Director invited the community police members and parents from the school as part of the project.

M2 sessions started as a one-on-one meeting, where each (G1) was assigned to one (G2). The session consists on an outside class structured by storytelling mixed with performance exercises done by all the participants. In this proposal the gallery of dreams is also presented, where an individual scheme concentrates itself on what G2 desires to accomplish during their lives, also creative writing encourage participants to tell their own stories and what they will need in order to achieve their goals accompanied with stencil/adhesive tape techniques, spray/acrylic lessons and collective mural designing, that includes of all the participants (G1, G2, school members, parents, local artists, community police, and volunteers).

Throughout the course, NPO members will monitor and evaluate all the products delivered by the contributors. By the end of the intervention all the participants will be evaluated by a free expression test where they will give the feedback related to their experiences as a M2 partaker.

At the end of all the interventions, an itinerant gallery will be presented with photos of the participants, accompanied of making-of videos and feedback results.

The outcome of M2 projected the following: 100% of the participants achieved the requirements for G1, 4 collective murals implemented, and also 100% of G2 delivered all the products required following the performance rubric.

Keywords:

Art, Creative process, Resilience, Collaborative work, Mentoring, One on One meeting, Gallery, Collective mural, Spray techniques, Stencil techniques, Urban art.